Witness Statement: Reza Azad

113. The guards told me that I was included in the names that would be called out. What happened is that names were called out, one-by-one, and Haj Davood Rahmani cursed these prisoners and put them on trial. The repentants rose and made false and ridiculous allegations against you. Their accusations consisted of nonsensical charges, for example that a prisoner ate food with a Communist on a particular date. During the questioning, Rahmani paced across the big room with his guards, only sitting down at intervals to personally interrogate or accuse a prisoner.

114. When Rahmani came up to me, I stood up and said: Haj Agha10, I am not going to give an interview, who said I should give an interview? He responded very loudly and said: So don’t give it. You will stay here forever and I will ask you how you are doing later. He continued to yell at me. Then Rahmani finished his interviews, without calling my name.

115. From that night onward, the repentants began to make life for us non-repenting prisoners even harder than before. They placed the more hot tempered prisoners at the end of the ward where the toilets were located. The toilets smelled awful. My cell measured four by four meters with metal bars in place of a door. I saw through the bars into the neighboring cells. The repentants came to my cell in middle of the night and kicked and punched me until the sun came up. I was barefoot and had two blindfolds covering my eyes, one doubled over the other, so I had no idea when or from which direction I would be punched or kicked, which made the beating even more painful because I could not ready myself for the blows.

116. These sorts of treatments went on until [Ayatollah] Montazeri took over the courts and introduced prison reform.

Arrival of Ayatollah Montazeri and Release from Prison

117. In the year 1363, a group of clerics and some youths from the government arrived at Ghezelhesar and gave speeches to everyone. These men did not talk like thugs. They used a different tone than their predecessors and did not curse or use foul language. They said they were from Ayatollah Montazeri’s Board.11

10 A man who has visited Mecca. A respectful salutation in Iran.

11 Reference to those persons commissioned by Ayatollah Montazeri to implement reforms in Iran’s prisons after 1983.